RBC to put acquisition strategy on hold, executive says

Royal Bank of Canada, which bought Birmingham’s Alabama National BanCorp. in 2007, will delay pursuing U.S. acquisitions until the recession is over, the bank’s financial chief said today.

“Our preference, being fairly conservative, is to wait to see the market going up a bit and maybe pay a little more to have the certainty that we have bottomed out,” Chief Financial Officer Janice Fukakusa said at an investor conference in Montreal.

Royal Bank CEO Gordon Nixon has orchestrated several big deals, but the bank might take a pause. Royal Bank has spent more than $1.87 billion on U.S. acquisitions in the past three years, including Atlanta-based Flag Financial Corp. and Alabama National, which operated First American Bank.

The bank also bought RBTT Financial Holdings Ltd. in Trinidad and Tobago for about $2.2 billion in June 2008.

Royal Bank CEO Gordon Nixon said last week that “significant opportunities” exist outside Canada in the next two to five years as banks restructure.

Fukakusa said the bank is more interested in “bite-sized acquisitions” and takeovers of wealth-management businesses even as troubled U.S. banks become available.

“We haven’t seen anything that makes sense for us, because the assets that are offered up don’t fit with us strategically,” she said.